Yesterday’s deadline for the players to accept the NHL’s latest proposal has come and gone without a single face to face meeting. Today the NHL is going to cancel the entire month of November from its schedule. This is a move that is not a surprise but it still is infuriating nonetheless. I thought the Black Friday nationally televised game would be the first game of the season but that guess was wrong. The earliest we will see hockey now is December 1st.
This doesn’t mean the entire season is gone, but the full 82 game schedule is now dead and buried. The silver lining is that the Winter Classic, in Ann Arbor, MI, and the All Star weekend, in Columbus, have not been cancelled yet. That gives some hope of a end to this madness.
The bottom line is the two sides need to have some actual negotiations. Enough of this take it or leave it bullshit! This is not a labor dispute anymore but rather a pecker measuring contest. Nobody cares who has the bigger wang just play some damn hockey already!! Get together and hash out an agreement that has some of the league’s proposal and some of the needs of the players. Call in a mediator. Call in Jesse Jackson, or Jimmy Carter or even Kevin Spacey, I don’t care, just get it done! 47% of a thriving and healthy game is much better than 100% of absolutely nothing.